There are four assumptions that have to be made:

1. Word is everywhere, and everyone uses it. Yes, there are other solutions, but I’m not going to talk about them, including Word versus FrameMaker.

2. You do not own the documents. This is about improving the life of non-writers in the office, and indirectly improving your own.

3. Users only use the formatting toolbar. Based on personal experience, my co-workers’ have almost no Word skills, no matter how long they have been using it.

4. Changes have to be invisible, so that the learning curve is minimal.

Free your mind. Let go of what you know, and think about what your co-workers know. Good.

Let's begin.

Management/User Approval

First of all, you cannot do anything without management approval. Any improvement means changing Word’s default setup, or changing the documentation process. This affects how people work so you need to get acceptance or nothing will happen.

Create a list of changes, communicate with those affected, and get buy-in. If you are in a small office, then you need to get it from your co-workers.

This requires diplomacy, sensitivity, intelligence, and a really good proof of concept. Use a basic template that looks good and is easy to use (more on that later). You would be amazed (or not) at the number of people who are not aware of styles. I often find that one demonstration is enough to win people’s hearts, but not enough to change their habits.

Which is a nice lead-in to...

Styles and Toolbars and Shortcuts

You can improve Word easily but it is very difficult to change work habits. No matter what improvements you make, users will still return to what has worked in the past. For example, everyone is familiar with the formatting toolbar. Even if you create a great template, and do one-on-one training, users will return to this toolbar. So the easiest way to change their habits is to replace the toolbar.

Here is a sample of one of my custom toolbars:

The buttons apply the most common styles (not format overrides): body text, headings, lists, and character fonts. Where possible, I copied the images from existing buttons, to take advantage of the users familiarity with the related function.

Finally, the toolbar is added to the template.

To learn more, look up Create a Custom Toolbar in Word help.

Finally, I customize the keyboard shortcuts based on the template. For example, in my template Ctl+B is assigned to apply the built-in character style Strong, Ctl+I to apply Emphasis, and Ctl+D to apply the default paragraph font. The last one is necessary, as I can't toggle the character styles without creating a macro.

Templates

Templates save time, and enforce consistency. They reuse information, and make it easier to update. A good technical writer will have a template that is easily modified for print, screen, or clay tablet. I've seen templates with over 100 styles, and each one is necessary.

Let me be blunt. A user template should have 15 styles or less that are available to the user. A typical user needs:

• 4 levels of headings
• 2 levels of numbered lists
• 2 levels of bulleted lists
• 1 for body text
• 1 for indented text

That's ten styles. They may need a table list, or extra headings, or captions. Add what you want, add what you need, but bear in mind one thing: the more complex the template, the less likely that it will be properly used.

A simple template has several benefits. It is easier to make subsequent changes to a well-formatted document. Restricting the number of levels in headings and lists will steer users away from the never-ending spiral into sub-sub-sub levels.

For example, in some of my templates I did not create a duplicate set of styles for tables. Instead, everyone used the same body text and lists for in and out of a table. Later, when I did a production edit, it was a simple task to use the Browse Object arrows and quickly reformat the tables with a special paragraph styles. Later, I even created a macro to automate the process.

You can make these styles available on a custom toolbar or in the Styles and Formatting task pane. If you train users to use the task pane, then make sure that you have limited the selection that is displayed.

Titles and Other Boilerplate

"What about titles and subtitles?" he asked rhetorically. Let's divide a document into two types of content: boilerplate and main content. The main content will need the most common styles, and these are applied using the toolbar. The boilerplate (or front matter or back matter) contains titles, subtitles, headers, a table of contents and an index. Unlike the main content, the user doesn't need to access a style to format this content. Some of it is generated (such as the table of contents), and some is only entered once (such as the title).

In my templates, the styles exist, but they are not a choice for the user in the toolbar or task pane. Instead I use fields. For example, I define the title, company, client, and project number once in the document properties (File/Properties/Summary tab). I place the values in the document with a DOCPROPERTY field ({DOCPROPERTY Company }) wherever they are needed.

When a user creates a new document from the template, he or she redefines the values in the document properties, and then updates all the fields in the document (Ctl+A to select the entire document, then F9 to update all the fields).

Some users are not capable or just will not accept the additional step of defining values and updating fields. In this case, I just use text placeholders, and highlight them.

Deploy Like a Ninja

Rollout of the changes should have as little impact as possible. It's hard enough to get approval without releasing a change that has technical bugs. Test the templates, the toolbars, and the shortcut keys on two machines. Get a sympathetic co-worker to try them out.

Placement of the template is crucial. Microsoft provides you with several choices, (template folder, workgroup, document library) but essentially you put the template on the network drive, or you put it in the same relative place on everyone's local drive.

Your decision has an impact on the user. Files based on network templates are affected by network traffic, and when a user works offline, then custom toolbars are lost. On the other hand, it is easier to roll out an update to the template, as it is in one location.

Putting the template on the same directory in each local drive makes it more portable, and faster, but more difficult to deploy and update.

There is no one good answer here. Check with your users. How many work offline regularly? How fast is your network? Is there a friendly IT resource who would help to automatically deploy the templates?

My preference is to put the template locally, and train them to use it properly.

Train Like a Drill Sergeant

If you have done everything else properly, then the initial training should be quick and concise. Show them where to find the template, how to create a new file, and how to use the toolbar. The rest of the training should be a lab. Everyone tries the new template, and can ask as many questions as necessary available for a lot of repeated questions.

Note: You have the carrot: a nice template that saves time and pain. You still need a stick: management must require that users follow the process, otherwise they won't. Emphasize that this is the new, required method during training.

Conclusion

This is just dipping a toe into the deep waters of Word. I am not trying to be comprehensive and technically detailed, but rather to present a different point of view. You have the knowledge.

Now go and learn.